1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate, in general, to the communication of digital data. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for a selective processing of digital voice data during communication.
2. Description of the Background Art
Digital voice is transmitted across networks for various applications. During the transmission, digital voice passes through a host of routers. Routers and other equipment that are located at a customer's site for connecting the customer to an access circuit are known as Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). Incoming digital voice into a CPE router can terminate at the CPE router. The incoming digital voice into the CPE router may also be transmitted to another router. Additionally, the incoming digital voice may be transmitted to a user device. Examples of a user device include a desktop, a laptop, and a palmtop on a local network of the router.
When the incoming digital voice in a router is transmitted further across the network, the quality of voice degrades. A manifestation of degradation in the quality of the digital voice is echo generation. The digital voice can be strengthened by using processing techniques at the CPE router such as echo cancellation and transcoding. A form of signal processing technique used is Digital Signal Processing (DSP). DSP improves the accuracy and reliability of digital signals. DSP also helps in echo cancellation when the digital signals correspond to the digital voice. Additionally, DSP helps in transcoding voice signals from one compression technique to another.
The existing CPE routers have DSP resources configured for each multiple interface. An interface bridges the digital signals that are transmitted from one communication link to another. Typically, a plurality of interfaces exists on a CPE router. The existing CPE routers have as many DSP resources configured as the number of interfaces that exist on the CPE routers. Consequently, DSP resources get configured even on those interfaces over which the digital voice is frequently terminated. In such cases, the DSP resources may be underutilized or not used at all. Alternatively, the DSP resources are used in digital voice paths even when the DSP resources are not required at all. This is because of architectural and configuration limitations on the existing CPE routers.